1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to data management. More particularly, the present invention is directed to systems and methods for gathering data and, using an arbitrary structure such as a document type definition (DTD), generating and emitting world wide web consortium (W3C) compliant extensible markup language (XML).
While the present invention is directed generally to generating or creating any content, the following patent description focuses on collecting data (content) for creating a graphics package in the form of a dining guide directory. However, those skilled in the art will appreciate that this particular instance or use of the invention is to be considered non-exhaustive and exemplary in nature only.
2. Background of the Invention
The field of graphics has enjoyed substantial growth over the past few years. As high performance computers and printers have become more readily available and inexpensive, software application writers have developed several graphics applications that have significant capabilities. For example, PhotoShop and Illustrator both from Adobe (San Jose, Calif.) provide, respectively, advanced image editing capabilities and vector graphics software. These software packages allow graphics designers to complete a graphics design from beginning to end on a single personal computer and output, for example, a portable data format (PDF) file, which can be displayed on another personal computer or can be printed.
Typically, programs such as PhotoShop and Illustrator operate using proprietary file formats that may not lend themselves to being easily manipulated for other programs to use or for any other purpose that a user might desire. In the case of yet another Adobe software package, namely Acrobat, a file format known as XFDF is employed. While this file format is known to those skilled in the art and useful for the purpose for which it was designed, the format is not universally employable. That is, the format works well with software programs written by Adobe, but may not be convenient to be used for other business-specific purposes.
Another problem existing in prior art graphics systems is the lack of data validation, meaning, for example, that required content parts related to a pre-defined structure are present. While there are tools for data entry validation against standardized structures (e.g., Documentum (Pleasonton, Calif.)), they are typically full-blown, large, stand-alone applications in their own right.